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For my Film Theory Final, I was asked to take a director of my choosing...any director at all...and write a paper utilizing a thesis of my own.
The thesis I chose was a matter of influence on the medium itself.
And the filmmaker I chose was Sir Alfred Hitchcock:
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This thread is for any fellow admirers of Alfred's material and craft...enjoy!
The thesis I chose was a matter of influence on the medium itself.
And the filmmaker I chose was Sir Alfred Hitchcock:
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The Suspenseful Puppeteer
A Peek into the Morbid Mind and Macabre Mastery of Alfred J. Hitchcock
by
Chas Blankenship
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Very few filmmakers can be properly identified as ‘influential,’ and even less are regarded to have a specific personal style; an approach to storytelling that is inherently theirs and theirs alone.
One such visionary, however, might be the most influential of all. The Maestro of Intrigue…the Savant of the Thriller…the Master of Suspense himself; Sir Alfred Hitchcock. But just how influential is his work…and, more importantly…why is he influential?
Born in London’s East End in the neighborhood of Leytonstone on August 13th 1899, Alfred Joseph Hitchcock grew up with an eye already keen on the macabre. He ‘wrote short fiction, became terrified of jails and the police, was deeply bonded to his mother and was intrigued by railway timetables for far off destinations.’ By the age of 21, he sought work in advertising and eventually found himself enthralled with the business of motion pictures. Alfred’s approach to design led him to Famous Players Lasky where he created title cards and ended up becoming an on-set assistant. Ironically, he wasn’t interested in the art of directing, as the studio had forced it upon him following the director of a project being fired. It was in this atmosphere that Hitchcock met Alma Reville and the two fell in love. Married in 1926, Alfred and Alma began a union both on personal and professional terms as Alma devotedly assisted her husband with the scripting and editing of his films.
Prior to his death in 1980, Alfred Hitchcock had completed an incredible 57 feature films…from 1927’s “The Lodger” to “Frenzy” in 1972…without winning a single Academy Award. But if history has taught us anything in regards to the Oscars, it’s that they never outweigh the gravitas of a filmmaker’s skill and talent. The sheer amount of respect, inspiration, recognition and influence Alfred Hitchcock has simultaneously garnished and endowed continues to grow even today. Despite other directors like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese achieving their own levels of influence, Hitchcock remains in a league entirely of his own making…at a unique standard that has been frequently imitated but never surpassed.
His films are so enthralling, so captivating and the first and perhaps best recognizable attempt at observing film as a medium of the utmost potential; potential of storytelling, visualizing and ultimately of manipulation. Like a well-mannered conductor at the head of an orchestra, Alfred could weave a lyrical melody within his films that would evoke or provoke a reaction from his audience precisely when he meant to. Paired with a love of Germanic Expressionism and a rather morbid sense of humor, Hitchcock relished in his subjective use of the camera…his ability to paint with light and shadow, his coercing of the frame for dramatic effect, his building tension through elongated almost uncompromising editing and his crafting interestingly developed characters through a combination of stunningly clever and biting dialog and the marvelous performances of his actors.
Hitchcock’s legacy as an authority on the thriller format has now come full circle with the man’s directing style transcending the man himself. In a development shared only with Stanley Kubrick and David Cronenberg, Alfred’s own name has a become a prominent term in the industry…if a film is attempting to be undeniably ‘Hitchcockian,’ everyone knows the intended aesthetic.
One can obviously gain a deep admiration for Hitchcock’s visual flourishes and it’s clear that, having learned from and adapted European Cinema, he brought to the United States a highly stylized approach to camerawork the likes of which were captivatingly revolutionary for their time. Combined with a finely tuned affinity for dramatic editing, the Suspenseful Puppeteer effectively pulled the strings on his audiences with delicate yet deliberate tact and malaise.
A prime example is the notorious ‘Shower Scene’ in 1960’s “Psycho,” in which Janet Leigh is shockingly butchered by the “Mother” of Norman Bates…masterfully staged in the confines of a seemingly ordinary bathroom, the murder is fully realized through stark cinematography that depicts the killer as a silhouette of black death…the camera, used to its fullest extent, reveals the essentials…Leigh’s gaping mouth, shadows dancing across the shower curtain, blood winding down the drain. There are even shots that feature the knife being brought down in a stabbing motion across Leigh’s body rather than actually stabbing INTO her, which act as a great visual trick that implies the gesture through elliptical means instead of resorting to actual on-screen violence that at the time would’ve been too ghastly to portray. But as you can see, gore is not a necessity for evoking bouts of tension and terror in an audience. The edit is, for 1960, incredibly visceral as our eye is barraged by the images of this sequence in rapid succession with the sheer terror of the proceedings heightened by the infamously iconic ‘shrieking strings’ cue by composer Bernard Hermann.
It was this film and, in particular this very scene, that created the germ of what would eventually come to be known as the ‘Slasher’ film. The shocking concept of killing the lead before the film is even resolved also became a constant staple of thrilling drama as a means of throwing the audience into complete limbo (if an audience is following a main character that gets killed, that initial attachment is severed…leaving the audience to fend for itself in a strange and potentially threatening environment).
Alfred’s play with shadow and light also became iconic in and of itself, creating the visual capability of implying danger and intrigue that in turn left the threat up to a viewer’s own imagination rather than naively tossing the moment aside by flat out revealing everything. This use of shadow play is perfectly displayed in the beautifully conceived Main Titles of 1942’s “Saboteur.”
This technique also parlayed into the concept of throwing an audience off balance with a shot or frame meant to remain visually undefined. For instance, the opening shot of 1958’s “Vertigo” is a horizontal bar and nothing more. Our eye is given no more information and we are left in bewildered awkwardness pondering what it is we’re seeing…until it’s revealed to be the final rung on a fire escape ladder. Rather than conform to the ever-convoluted establishing shot of a location or the informative master, Alfred chose to consistently mess with the visual paradigm…always keeping his audience on edge and off kilter.
Frequently a perceptible filmmaker, Hitchcock also became a well-versed progenitor in the fields of both optical and auditory advancements. His 1929 “Blackmail” was the first British sound feature and 1948’s “Rope” was an incredibly ambitious experiment in strategic choreography of actors, lighting and sets as the film was shot in full 11-minute masters that were delicately edited to create the apparently seamless visage of a single, fluid camera take. But perhaps Alfred is most fondly remembered for his encompassing and large-scale sequences…as the film well known filmmaker to utilize the practice of storyboarding. For the dramatic attack sequences in 1963’s “The Birds,” Hitchcock conceived and illustrated his own detailed sketches…using them to plot out his camera set-ups, actor’s positions in conjunction with the frame and the arduous task of detailing the work that had to be done with optical effects that would showcase the hordes of winged pests antagonizing ‘Tippi’ Hedren. Ultimately, “The Birds” featured 370 trick shots that required nearly three years of preparation devoted to the film’s technical complexity. This dynamic approach would eventually give birth to pre-visualization; a practice that effects-heavy pictures today find absolutely essential during the pre-production process. The concept of visually describing complex shots and sequences through artwork was adopted by the industry at large and became forever permeated in pre-production; all thanks to the emulous eye of Hitchcock.
Beyond his own fascinations with technical analysis and experimentation, Hitchcock’s true claiming of ‘Master’ resides in his expert fusion of dense philosophical reflection with brilliantly pitched, often scathing, social observation. Intrigued by humanities’ dark underbelly, Alfred was unafraid of taking us into those obscure corners of the mind where evil resides…plagued by corruption, moral ambiguity, perversion, ruthlessness, eroticism, decadence, insanity and every other potentially unsavory facet of mankind.
Rather than place this evil in some far off providence, he insisted on showcasing the truth…that evil is in all of us, all around us…penetrating us and motivating is ever so subtly; ever so maliciously. Hitchcock took his films as an opportunity to look very hard at what compels and drives one to crime, madness and murder. Cases of losing grip on sanity, mistaken identity, sexual immorality, psychological abuse and the ultimately damning conclusion…that at its core, humanity is rarely ever noble or good-natured. Told through Alfred’s own penchant for morbid curiosity and dry farcical humor, his filmography is an appealing peak behind the façade of human benevolence at what truly horrific proposals and thoughts reside in the unconscious mind. Examples of these obviously include the bulk of Hitchcock’s films but prominent standouts include 1945’s “Spellbound,” 1954’s “Rear Window,” 1959’s “North by Northwest” and 1972’s “Frenzy.”
Profoundly visual in his utilization of the camera, the lighting, the costumes and the color Hitchcock is a filmmaker for the ages with his remarkable talent of crafting incredible form and feeling in his frame compositions…truly his photography remains the most primal and powerful as it continues, to this day, to be imitated by many directors.
Brian DePalma is known for admittedly building his entire career on the foundations of ‘Hitchcockian’ design with “Scarface” and “The Black Dahlia.” “Disturbia” is a modern day “Rear Window.” Ridley Scott was certainly inspired when creating the tense, spine-tingling and suspenseful atmosphere of “Alien” and Martin Scorsese’s “Cape Fear” and John Carpenter’s “Halloween” are fitting contemporary homage’s to “Vertigo” and “Psycho” respectively. Scorsese himself has even commented on his appreciation of “Vertigo” as that of a ‘whirlpool of obsession…a very beautiful, comfortable, almost nightmarish obsession.’
Yes…very few filmmaker’s can be properly identified as ‘influential’ and even less are regarded to have a specific personal style; an approach to storytelling that is inherently theirs and theirs alone.
Why is Hitchcock so influential?
Because nearly 30 years have gone by since Alfred’s passing…and not one single dramatic motion picture has been or could be made without using at least one technique initiated by him. Literally, it seems quite impossible.
Without the ground broken by Hitchcock, filmmaking itself as a visual medium would lose its potency and power a thousand fold…an entire generation of filmmakers would not have access to the countless techniques and innovations he sought to use as storytelling devices; techniques and innovations that he alone brought to the table or created himself.
Truly…film as we know it today would not exist without Alfred Hitchcock.
A director actually worthy of being labeled a Pioneer…THAT is not only what makes him influential…but universal and everlasting.
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This thread is for any fellow admirers of Alfred's material and craft...enjoy!
